If you thought that the current controversies plaguing the upcoming Commonwealth Games are shameful, here are some episodes from our sorry sporting past

It is an old rule in politics - if you are caught out in activities which are fairly par for the course, often involving the misuse of funds or assets belonging to the public exchequer, then you have to be able to defend yourself without letting any muck escape upwards. If you try to point fingers at those who are above your horizon, then you will simply not be allowed to go off into the sunset in peace, as all upward trails will be obscured. Anything you say is suspect anyways.

The only alternative left then is to stand alone in a corner and fight it out. Brazenly. Use every trick at your disposal. Maybe you will succeed, in which case you live to fight for another day. Or you have to exit gracefully, and be content with the fact that for the rest of your life you will be allowed to exist, without much ado. But. You. Do. Not. Pass. The. Blame. Upwards.

Suresh Kalmadi appears to be in a jam of this sort. After finessing the art-form of running games which nobody else considered to be anything more than a great party with fireworks, during the eminently forgotten 'Commonwealth Youth Games' held in Pune a few years ago, he obviously set his sights far too high in the killing fields of Delhi. Such is the state of the media in India today, that for better or for worse, if one media-house "breaks" a report of the sort that the Commonwealth Games (CWG) and Indian Olympics Association are facing nowadays, then the rest will also have to tag along. And it must be said, the centre of action for all this CWG chaos is in and around South and New Delhi - which is where our national electronic and print media seems to find its frontlines.

But would all this have been possible without credible access to the one thing that matters in the first case - the numbers? And therein lies a tale, which is a Moneylife exclusive.

Way back in 2005, the Right to Information (RTI) Act of India was in its first flush of action, and ably supported by Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, yours truly filed a very simple RTI application with the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) - operating those days out of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) premises at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. IOA and its subordinate as well as related entities, which control every game and sport in India plus a lot more, were for all practical purposes acting like extensions of the government of India, through SAI and the ministry of sports. In short, a great time was had by all.

Except the athletes and sportspersons who went to Melbourne for the previous Commonwealth Games in 2006. There were reports on how they performed in close to miserable conditions - again, nothing new. Indian sports team goes abroad, local Indian population provides training facilities, equipment, local transport, shoes and food - otherwise there is always the gracefulness of the gurudwaras. This has been the reality for ages, and in a pre-liberalisation, pre-Internet, pre-RTI India, it just went on that way. In exchange, you gave them bottles of Indian pickles, or similar.

Except that this time there were reports on the Internet, picked up in small little columns by the mainstream media, which spoke also about the vast amounts of money paid to stars and starlets to come and dance on stage in Melbourne. One famous actress I knew, however, told me she went all the way there for national honour, and didn't know what these payments were about.

So, in a moment of inspired madness, your correspondent filed a very simple RTI application with the Indian Olympics Association, asking it to please provide details of these dancing expenses in Melbourne. To be fully aware of the truth on such things, if they had done so, and given any story as an answer, the matter would have probably died there and then.

But no. Authority questioned is authority defied, and so the questioner has to be put in his place. Publicly. The whole establishment, which was the IOA, SAI, ministry of sports and the rest of them, chose to at one stage or the other defend the right of the IOA not to provide these numbers. Or IOA's adherence to the RTI Act. The arguments were various, from outright denial to some innovative ones quoting declarations and speeches which nobody else had heard of - but they all said the same thing - we won't tell you how much we spent on what. We are not liable to the Indian people. That's it. Go away. And the weight by way of legal pressure was amazing.

In addition, it was the clear and outright support from good friends who are lawyers in Delhi, that they would support me all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, totally pro bono, which gave strength for the next episode. Plus the simple fact that MS Gill came into the sports ministry.

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COMMENTS

KB Patil

6 years ago

Some months ago, Rahul Gandhi was always in the news, saying the right things. However, nowadays, when some issues have reached crisis point - for instance, the Maoist attacks, high inflation, violence in Kashmir and this blatant corruption in the Games, he is totally mum. A leader is one who is always prepared to face the music, not one who surfaces only when the weather is favorable.

In fact, yesterday, the PM's body language during the Parliament debate, left me very disturbed. It seems that PM is least perturbed by the blatant acts of profiteering by the OC. Crooked people are adept at manufacturing a crisis so that they can have their way. It is in India's interest to have a clean record during the games. As the saying goes: Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The people of India are watching, dear PM. If you dont act now, this could very well be a millstone around your neck.

jamna varadhachary

6 years ago

What is new. Everyone in Pune knows who pocketing millions after the games. I would have been surprised if this time too, he is not in murky deals. Only he has aimed higher this time.It is a given, the venality of politicians and the games administrators who have a stranglehold on their fiefdoms.

V Malik

In Reply to jamna varadhachary6 years ago

Thank you for writing in, Jamna ji.

The big picture is like that of a large supertanker plodding its way across the ocean relentlessly. Any change will be done slowly carefully and with a lot of homework. Our role is to do what we can, every little bit helps and adds up.

K Narayanan

6 years ago

Corruption has been commoditised in India.It is mainly monopolysied by the politicians in power with some biscuits thrown to the officials.Kalmadi is raping CWG but congress politicians and some others are telling that we shd enjoy witnessing the rape and allow CWG to be concluded before questioning him.We are unable to do anything in the case of a High court judge agaist whom serious allegations are there.In Karnataka the CM is telling that Reddy brothers are innocent and no proof is there agaist them.Our pride is apparently CWG for some with vested interest who are closely connected with the game but according to me "our pride is shameless exhibition of corruption"

V Malik

In Reply to K Narayanan6 years ago

Thank you K. Narayanan ji. The point of this article is and was to try and get across that the strength of paper and pen eventually does achieve something. It may take time, it may be convoluted, but it does so. Agreed that the exhibition of corruption has now become naked loot, but have faith in the fact that you and I are still able to do something to try and cure matters. One small aspect at a time.

Thanks for writing in.

New Delhi: India Inc seems to have regained its deal-making appetite with merger and acquisitions (M&As) so far this year nearing the $50 billion level-already over three times the total for entire 2009, reports PTI.

There were M&A deals worth about $16 billion in 2009, down from close to $40 billion in 2008.

Indicating that deal valuations are also witnessing a revival in line with the recovery in stock markets and overall economy, the value of M&A deals have risen despite a decline in the number of transactions.

According to data compiled by research firm VCCEdge, the M&A deal value rose nearly five-times to $5.4 billion in July 2010 alone, from $1.1 billion in July 2009.

So far in 2010, that is between January and July, the cumulative M&A deal value has touched $49.7 billion, as compared to $16.3 billion in the whole of 2009, VCCEdge said in its monthly deal report.

There have been 411 M&A deals so far this year, down from 453 deals seen in 2009, the report noted. July also saw fewer deals at 42, as compared to 47 in July 2009.

However, when compared to June 2010, a substantial drop was seen in both the deal value and volume. The deal value fell by 62% and the numbers went down by 34%.

Indian companies had announced 64 M&A deals in June 2010 with a total value of nearly $14.1 billion. The biggest month in terms of M&A deals so far this year has been March, which saw 72 deals worth a total of $14.35 billion.

VCCEdge further pointed out that the number of domestic deals decreased from 26 in July 2009 to 21 in July 2010.

But the value of domestic deals went up to $2.03 billion last month, from $282 million in July 2009.

In terms of volume, the number of outbound deals fell from 12 in July 2009 to eight in July 2010, while there were eight inbound deals in each of the two months.

The value of inbound deals still rose sharply year-over- year to $2.01 billion in July 2010 from $744 million.

The average deal size also rose to $216 million last month, from $61 million in July 2009.

VCCEdge report noted that energy, healthcare and materials were the most targeted sectors in July 2010, with each witnessing deals worth over one billion dollars.

The month's biggest deal was Reliance Natural Resources Ltd's (RNRL) merger with another Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Power (R-Power) in an all-stock deal valued at $1.56 billion.

The top five deals alone accounted for 88% of total M&A deal activity in July 2010, VCCEdge said.